5th August 2015
It was tough day in the office against last years Top 4 team Penrith who were desperate for a win to remain in 2015 Top 8 contention. But Souths held their composure and added another win at ANZ Stadium over Penrith. That makes it now 6 from 6. Still another one win to qualify for the finals and 3 wins out of 5 for a Top 4 finish. Now for a cracker of a game out at Brookvale against arch rivals Manly who are moving up the table and desperate for a win to keep thier Top 8 asperations alive.
Its been a great 8 seasons but on the weekend we saw Ben Lowe plays his last game for Souths after a bicep injury ended his season. He has been great clubman for Souths and it was such a pity his representative career ended before it started when he broke his toe. Ben goes down in history as also being a 100% goalkicker. Good luck to the future.
It was great to Kyle back on the FG paddock but when he suffered another concussion and was convulsing everyone held their breath. Luckily it wasn't a neck injury issue as he walked off but now suffering 7 concussions since making his FG debut, there are real concerns for his long term health. Lets hope its just a anomoly.
Lattrell Schaumkel is starting to make a name for himself out the Bears backline. In the last 4 weeks he has scored 8 tries including two hattricks. He has stepped up from Manly U20s and is progressing very well after finally settling into teh Bears backline.
It has been brewing for a while of late but came to a head this week with two NRL players verbally attacking the A-Grade referee after the game. Penrith JRL quite rightly banned them for 12 months as this was not first time it has occurred. But what is a concern is the lack of involvement by the NRL Integrity Unit who could have clearly sent out a message to players, officials and fans that they do not condone this conduct in any ARLC event. Silence from RL HQ is very disappointing.
Statistically Round 21 stats dropped this week back to normal levels. Completion rates dropped to a poor 73% this week. Errors increased to 10 from 3 last week. We gave away 6 penalities this week compared to 9 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle dropped back to a poor level at 35.6m from 16.3m last week. Our missed tackles were dropped to 27 missed tackles from 13 last week. Opposition offloads increased to 21 this week from 9 last week. Our worst all year.
Looking at our left side defence - Gray-Goodwin-Keary-Sutton (0-1-3-4) increased this week to 8 from 2 missed tackles last week. On the right side Johnston-DWalker-Reynolds-Stewart (0-1-3-4) were increased to 8 missed tackles from 5 last week.
Our go forward decreased this week to 1305m this week. Luke, Goodwin and Keary lead the way in making 10+m per hitup. With George Burgess, Luke, Tom Burgess, Grant, Goodwin and Inglis making more that 100+m in the match. Only one forward making 100+m is a concern however. Defensively Stewart was our best in the tackling raking up 44 tackles. With Turner, Inglis, Aaron Gray and Johnston not missing a tackle.
Signing off for another week - the midweek Cyber View from the Hill